


heard you on the radio the other night, you sounded good

by springs_charioteer



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Bluff City Spoilers, Gen, M/M, Season: Bluff City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-20 23:54:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21065300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springs_charioteer/pseuds/springs_charioteer
Summary: Heard listens to the radio sometimes.(I would tag this as hector/heard but this man is so incredibly repressed)





	heard you on the radio the other night, you sounded good

Agent Heard is the type of man who one day materialized out of thin air wearing a three piece suit and decided he had to go to work. He drinks his coffee black, drives an unremarkable car, doesn't get out of the office much, not these days. He keeps the radio low, voices and music and static mingling with the engine's turn on his way home. He sets it on the scanner, Bluff City's interesting like that.  
He hears the peel sometimes. It's always on nights he leaves the office late, his first one back in Bluff after an assignment, cleaning up a paper mess never meant for one agent. Heard catches a verse— Corinthians 16:14— static. A laugh, a name. Signing on. Static. Signing off. Static. Some classic pop. Matthew 26:33.   
He gets home. Parks, turns off the engine. Puts the peel out of his mind, like he's meant to.   
Heard sits in his gray bedroom in his undershirt, boxers, socks. His alarm clock glows red in the dusk, reminds him it's Saturday tomorrow. It has a radio setting, and he's never tested it. He should. He does. A pop song he doesn't usually mind when it's not at this volume careens out of the speakers, and he blinks. He turns it down, lets it play out while he searches for the scan function in vain. He hesitates over the tuner. He doesn't remember the station he wants, and maybe that's for the best. He clicks it up one. Static. Another. Spanish. Talk show, sounds like. Another. English, advertisement. Another. Static. Another.   
"--the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak—" Static.  
Heard sets the clock down, listens to the white noise and thinks of nothing but it.

The peel takes calls on his show. He's personable, same as Squire. Makes sense. It's a good copy. Heard can picture the tilt of his mouth as he speaks about ghosts, the line of his hands and the gestures that go with them when he reports on the traffic.  
It's strange how much the scanner lands on his show, but Heard won't question it. He has no control over this.   
The number sticks in his head, though, with how much it's repeated. 1 800 609 WBRK.   
The thought of calling happens more than he'd like. He goes as far as to punch in the first seven digits late one night or early one morning on two hours of sleep in as many days in a laborious fit of indecision. His body wins the fight, as it decides it's not worth losing his job over this and sends him to blessed sleep. His mind retaliates with dreams of apses and altars, a confession booth of sorts. Guilt plagues him for the rest of the week, and he's sure Ward can smell it on him. He takes up Seals on her offer of a drink.

On a stakeout, Heard gets a call.

He doesn't check the number, never has to. He knows who it is.

"Hello, and welcome, friend." Hector says. "What brings you to calling tonight?"  
"You called me," Heard replies, clipped.  
"There has to be a reason for that." A moment's hesitation. He almost feels like a person. "You sure you didn't do it yourself?  
"I'm sure. I haven't heard your voice for a long time, Hector."  
His car radio is at a low murmur, but he can hear the alternating static on the scanner. Heard braces for his own voice."  
"What's your name?"  
"Robert," with the T barely hanging on.  
"Robert. That's a nice name, Robert, but I don't think it quite suits you."  
"No. It doesn't."  
"You have another one?"  
"Yes."  
"You want to share? It's important to get these things right."  
"I know. I thought you knew it."  
A pause. "I'm sure I did. Have you called in before? I don't recognize your number."  
"I haven't."  
"Heard your voice before, though."  
"Yeah. You have."  
"Well then you must be a crab man." Heard can see the smile on Hector's face, delight and sly disbelief.  
"Not in this city, no."  
"Well, this is a strange turn of events, Robert the crab man. Any knowledge you want to impart on us humans?"  
Heard catches himself off guard with his own laugh. "You know I can't do that."  
"But I can try."  
He hears the echo of the peel's voice through his car speakers. He is not taking a call.  
"I have to leave now."  
"I thought as much," the peel sighs. "Thank you for calling, thank you for listening. Infinite—"  
Heard hangs up.

**Author's Note:**

> This is weird bc they're both such strange men
> 
> 1 Corinthians 16:14 - Do everything in love.
> 
> Matthew 26:33 - Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."
> 
> Please dont actually call that number i dont know what it is


End file.
